Goldman Critic Dodges Agents Eager for Tell-All Book

A screen grab from Facebook shows a man identified as Greg Smith, a former employee of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. taken from his Facebook page on Thursday, March 15, 2012. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein’s management and the firm’s treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street. Source: Facebook.com via Bloomberg

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Greg Smith, the former Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. derivatives salesman whose critique of the Wall
Street firm earned him $150 from the New York Times, has eluded
book agents and publishers who say his story could make him a
lot more.

“The sky’s the limit,” said Esther Newberg of
International Creative Management in New York who’s been a
literary agent for 35 years. She said two of her colleagues have
reached out to Smith. “Agents and publishers are trying to talk
to him. The feedback we get is that he’s hiding for a while.”

Smith said in a March 14 opinion piece that a “toxic and
destructive” environment at Goldman Sachs drove him to quit
after 12 years. He reignited a debate about Wall Street that
played out on televisions and in newspapers around the world.
Goldman Sachs, the most profitable and highest-paying firm in
Wall Street history before the 2008 financial crisis, said it
disagreed with Smith’s depiction and that most employees say the
company provides exceptional client service.

Goldman Sachs has also been unsuccessful in attempts to
contact Smith, who e-mailed his resignation at the same time his
article was published, a person familiar with the matter said.
The New York Times reported that Smith, a South African and a
Stanford University graduate, flew to New York this week from
London, where he’s worked for about a year. Smith didn’t reply
to a voicemail left on his mobile phone.

Smith’s depiction of the firm’s sales practices --
employees who deride clients as “muppets” and brag of
“ripping eyeballs out” -- resonated with a public angry about
bailouts of banks during the crisis, said Priscilla Painton,
executive editor for nonfiction at Simon & Schuster.

Touched a Nerve

“His message touched a nerve that’s particularly tender
right now,” she said. “It’s not very often that people from
inside the industry are willing to denounce it.”

That Smith worked at Goldman Sachs, whose alumni include
two U.S. Treasury secretaries, is even more appealing because of
the firm’s influence, Painton said. David Wells, a spokesman at
Goldman Sachs in New York, declined to comment.

The potential book drew comparisons to “Liar’s Poker,”
Michael Lewis’s 1989 best-seller about his experience working at
investment bank Salomon Brothers and its culture of greed and
risk-taking. Lewis is a Bloomberg View columnist.

Albert Zuckerman, founder of New York-based Writers House,
which represents Lewis, said Smith’s prospects for a book deal
are good -- with caveats.

“It’s a book fraught with potential lawsuits” because
Smith’s detailed recollections could be libelous, Zuckerman
said. “Publishers would be very interested if he were to ally
himself with an important writer who would know how to make his
book interesting, dramatic and not legally perilous.”

If Smith wants to write a book, he can’t wait too long to
strike a deal, Zuckerman and Painton said.

“News is perishable,” Painton said. “Who knows what
other Wall Street developments will overtake this one?”